It’s perhaps an unhappy coincidence, but the last major economic recession in Canada also occurred during the tenure of a “conservative” regime; namely, that of the great free-trader and profligate spendthrift, Lyin’ Brian Mulroney. Of course, the one prior to that in 1982 had occurred under the “tax and spend” Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau and as such, has been a jagged pill that so-called “Conservatives” haven’t quite been able to swallow for the better part of 30 years. Indeed, it’s one that they still bitterly moan and complain about to this day, even if they weren’t born at the time or were still shitting in their tiny pants when it happened. Well, some things just never change it seems.

But not to worry… there won’t be a repeat of that. Stephen Harper, the Dear Leader and Great Helmsman, is masterfully commanding our economy now and he boldly and confidently assures us (or the right-wing corporate American media, at least) that everything is just ship-shape and that he has “solid plans” to avert any prolonged downturn beyond 4Q of this year and prevent any further accumulation to our national debt And why would we have any reason to doubt Stephen “now is a good time to invest in the stock market” Harper? He is an economist, after all!!!

If nothing else, this clip from today’s Morning Joe is worthwhile just for Scarborough’s uncontrollable laughter after having watched a compilation of Beck’s verklempt crying jags on his Fox News show. It comes at 1:48 into the video if you want to speed right to that. Oh, and here’s the New York Times article that prompted this little discussion.

According to David Frum, Beck’s success “is a product of the collapse of conservatism as an organized political force, and the rise of conservatism as an alienated cultural sensibility.”

For reasons that should be perfectly obvious to sentient humans, Spain should welcome the fact that Bill O’Reilly won’t visit their country. As for his call for a boycott against Spanish products, if past is prologue, it should be noted that during the period of his hilariously inept boycott against France (phony reports from the imaginary “Paris Business Journal” notwithstanding), trade with that country actually increased substantially throughout the time of Bill-O’s ban.

As incredibly delightful as is the rapier wit of Baron Black of Crossharbour (could a more impossibly wicked name have been invented for the man?), one has to wonder why his correspondent (conservative author and “community activist” Bob Plamondon) saw fit to share Black’s wickedly acerbic barbs about various luminaries of the Canadian political scene with the Globe & Mail’s most vacuous and addlepated ninny, Jane Taber. As for calling Green Party leader Elizabeth May a “frumpy, noisy, ill-favoured, half-deranged windbag”… Sheesh! Talk about “pot meet kettle”…